Review: Episode 2 of Portrait Artist of the Year Series 7 (Autumn 2020)

This is my review of the second episode of Series 7 of the Portrait Artist of the Year (Autumn 2020).

I thought it might be nice to recognise the end before we begin. The tradition is that everybody claps when the four hours are up. Normally it's the audience clapping the artists - but in these heats in the time of Covid-19 the artists clapped each other

The clapping at the end of the four hours

It's also really interesting how the new series is being received by the television commentators. Here's some of their reviews published after the first episode.

• Portrait Artist of the Year review – Bake Off for painters is an hour-long cuddle | The Guardian

The show is as funny as it is high-minded. It should tick the boxes for art aficionados and amateurs alike.

• Portrait Artist of the Year, review: a soothing tonic for our times | The i

Nothing could undermine the show’s soothing quality; watching people quietly stroke paint on to canvas is, it turns out, quite the tonic for our times.

and yet in relation to this episode we have the following

• Mirren Mack reveals why Portrait Artist of the Year was more nerve-racking than being on stage | Radio Times

“It was more nerve-racking than being on a stage being a character, because then you can hide behind that. Whereas people were asking me questions as myself and it was just a new experience. It was actually an amazing experience and I loved it, but I was just a bit nervous beforehand going into it.

“It was strange coming from a world of just seeing my family to a big room full of amazing creative people. It was a really beautiful break in my lockdown.”

Episode 2: The Artists, Self-portraits and Sitters

Note that I test the links on the page which lists the artists with their speeded up overhead videos and social media links. The ones on this page all work. I'm afraid that's NOT the case for all the ones on the Profiles Page constructed by the Sky Arts people 

Can I just note that I'm also far more likely to use links to social media postings by participating artists IF they have made a suitable post about their episode!!! Not all do - by a long way! (That's a hint!)

The Artists

The Professional Artists

This heat had seven professional artists

• Jamie Ampleford ( Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) - an artist based in West Sussex. His website suggests he works a lot from photos.
• Danny Byrne ( Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) an ex political cartoonist who is now a professional artist in Bristol. He has exhibited at annual exhibitions by the Royal Academy, Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Royal Pastel Society and the Royal Society of Watercolour Artists. (I thought I recognised his work!)

• Francesca Currie ( Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) - a full time artist based in Cheltenham. She studied for a degree in Fine Art at The University College of the Arts in Norwich and afterwards at the London Atelier of Representational Art. Member of RBSA.
• Helen Fox - a self-taught artist from Stroud, Gloucestershire.
• Suzon Lagarde ( Website | Facebook | Instagram) - an emerging artist based in London whose small paintings I see regularly in various exhibitions (i.e. the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (2020-2019), the Royal Society of Portrait Painters (2020) and Royal Institute of Oil painters annual exhibition (2019). She took part in the part in the ‘In The Studio’ program with the Mall Galleries. So she's working hard at getting past 'emerging'! Currently studying Portraiture at the Art Academy London.

• Patrick Morales Lee ( Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter) A professional illustrator who is also an artist based in Whitstable. Represented by Central Illustration Agency. Member of two art collectives: ACE Club and the new 'Contemporary British Portrait Painters'

View this post on Instagram

Well, that was fun (kinda), very odd to watch yourself back. But very honoured to be part of it, massive thanks to the judges @katebryan_art and @kathleen.soriano and to #taishanschierenberg who’s work I’ve just adored for friggin years, so to hear the comment above is great. Overall I was actually disappointed with my drawing, my approach and composition I was happy with, but I played it too safe, got worried about time and didn’t push it to an interesting place. Overall I didn’t feel it was a true sense of my work. But equally, no doubt overthinking. Big thanks to @artistoftheyear and @storyvaultfilms for a brilliant production and being so welcoming. - And a final thanks to @suzonlagarde and @curtisartist - two brilliant artists who you should follow if you don’t already. Personally I thought Curtis’s work was outstanding, and half way through the day, peeked his work and said he would win. So great to see someone pushing contemporary drawing forward. - #art #drawing #contemporarydrawing #portrait #paoty #paoty2020 #judges #winner #runnerups #patrickmoraleslee

A post shared by Patrick Morales-Lee (@patrickmoraleslee) on Oct 21, 2020 at 1:39pm PDT

• Katy Papineau ( Website | Instagram ) Based in London. Her work  work has focused on everyday, intimate interior scenes. Currently based at home during Covid and exploring themes of theatricality, dressing up and decoration within the home. 

The Amateur Artists

There are two amateur artists

• Curtis Holder ( Website | Instagram ) - Born in Leicester and based in London. Curtis is a part-time primary school teacher and an artist who draws on paper using graphite, watercolour and ink pencils. His work focuses on portraiture and the human form.  He's got a solid art education: Foundation Diploma at Loughborough College of Art and Design (1988); BA (Hons) Graphic Design from Kingston University (1991); Postgraduate Diploma in Character Animation (2005) from Central Saint Martins as well as a PGCE.
• Paul X'Arc ( Website ) - a photographer from London who likes Gothic themes

The Self Portraits

Review: Episode 1 of Portrait Artist of the Year Series 7 (Autumn 2020)

Series 7 of Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year (Autumn 2020) started two weeks ago - but for various reasons - not least that these are not fast posts to review, construct and write - I've not had time until now to write my review. 

I apologise for not saying anything. I did eventually realize that there were lots of people who were pulling up my reviews of the first two episodes of the last series because it had 2020 tacked on the end of the title.

Of course in 2020 we're having Portrait Artist of the Year x 2! 

• One filmed in 2019 which was broadcast between January and March 2020.
• One filmed at some point in the spring/summer of 2020 which is being broadcast now. This one is called SERIES 7.

So 

• today is my review of Episode 1 OF Series 7.
• tomorrow is Episode 2 - EXCEPT I've got to go and have scan at the hospital and 
• Thursday will be Episode 3 - and then I'll be all caught up - EXCEPT that I've FINALLY got an outpatient appointment on Thursday to see a doctor at the hospital about my very dodgy ankle with the floating broken bone shards.

So that's the plan and I'm hoping to keep to it!

Series 7

I did wonder for a very long time whether they'd go ahead with Series 7 - because filming was due to happen during lockdown and I couldn't work out 

• how artists would get to the Battersea Arts Centre or 
• how they would manage given the extremely large number of people in the crew - never mind anybody else who is participating.

I'd love to hear from the artists whether they stuck to the original planned dates for filming - and what the experience was like.

(I found the answer while doing the artists's bios - they filmed in July - so NOT in lockdown!)

The interior of Battersea Arts Centre

What's very different this year is that obviously:

• there was no audience
• there was no Dame Joan Bakewell - who switched to hosting Portrait Artist of the Week instead!
• everything happened at a suitable social distance
• come the broadcast, everybody in the UK could view the programme because it had transferred to Freeview and hence was available to anybody with a digital TV.

I did wonder whether they had to change their plans for any of the sitters - in terms of whether people could be available or not. 

I also wonder what it would have been like if they'd filmed it now - with either people unable to travel and everybody else required to wear a mask in an indoor location with people outside your social bubble.

About Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year - Series 7 (Autumn 2020)

The Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year competition ranks alongside the other prestigious UK Art Competitions covered by this blog.

It has been running for some years and this is the seventh series

Royal Ulster Academy sets new standard for Online Annual Exhibitions

The Royal Ulster Academy's website has set a NEW standard for the online annual exhibition.

This is the VIRTUAL 139th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Ulster Academy. 

Virtual Arts Media are providing the virtual exhibition - as they did last year when they created a digital twin of the actual exhibition - with digital images of artwork positioned in precisely the same space of the virtual copy of the gallery. They explain what they do in What is a Virtual Exhibition and show the actual exhibition and digital twin side by side

For me it's 

• a much more convincing replica of an art exhibition and 
• seems to be much easier to navigate than some of the others I have seen. 
• if you click on an artwork while navigating around, it provides a new window with
• details about the artwork, 
• who created it
• the sale price
• how to buy it

For example, it also provides a:

• list of artists by surname - you click the name and it takes you straight to the artwork (very speedily!). I'd be consulting this in the real exhibition if I knew the artists!!
• an exhibition map - click on the room and it takes you straight to the room so that you can start viewing the work

It takes a little getting used to but if you're patient and work how it works it's a very rewarding experience

139th Annual Exhibition of the Royal Ulster Academy

Founded in 1879, the Royal Ulster Academy of Arts (RUA) is the largest and longest established body of practising visual artists in Northern Ireland. One of its founding principles is to organise, promote or join in organising and promoting in any fashion an Annual Exhibition of work by both members and non–members.

For information: This was the Call for Entries for this exhibition and submissions of work completed in the last two years were invited from visual artists aged 18+ working in any medium. 

For those who find navigating technology rather difficult here are some shortcuts to seeing the art.

Click the view/Buy menu option. This takes you to the categories of artwork

There are 263 artworks in total of which there are:

• 159 Paintings
• 29 Sculptures
• 20 Fine Art Prints
• 17 Drawings
• 7 ceramic and glass pieces
• 5 digital artworks
• 4 textiles

I have to say my overall impression is I am impressed by the quality of the artwork in the exhibition.

Ones which stood out for me included the following (and yes I can spot a plant painting at 50 feet!)

• Mater Natura by Jennifer Trouton - which superimposed plants on the body part they help. The series of nine watercolours were made whilst on an artist residency at Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University , Suzhou, China and awarded the Watercolour prize at this Year’s Royal Ulster Academy exhibition at the Ulster museum. 
• but where are you REALLY from? by Lynn Kennedy - tackling an issue which maybe passes people by in a land where your origins are so often rooted in religion. Her social commentary includes an impressive painting in the National Gallery of Ireland
• Pulveli by Anushiya Sundaralingam - an interesting monochome paintings of a tangle of plants. The artist is originally from Sri Lamka but now lives and works in Belfast. 
• September Dundrum Bay by Hamish Moyle - a large landscape painting of rural Northern Ireland. A bit of a "feel good" painting for many I suspect.  He seems to have a pretty solid track record of selling paintings of wild flowers in their habitat despite his anti-social website with no proper navigation menu!
• Tea in the time of Coronavirus by Amanda Croft (although a tad overpriced) - which featured in the Belfast Telegraph!
• Fishing Nets by Helen Kerr - which is a batik and stitch textile artwork

Interestingly one of the paintings in the exhibition seems to have been generated by the Sky Portrait Artist of the Week session with Akram Khan - see Akram Khan, dancer and choreographer. by Laura Cronin and see what you think!

ING Discerning Eye 2020: Selected Artists

The list of artists selected for the online ING Discerning Eye 2020 Exhibition have been produced in the most anti-analytical form possible!

Hence many hours and much effort was employed in producing this listing of artists who have had artwork selected for the exhibition in order of 

• number of artworks selected
• alphabetically by surname

There is no indication of which selector chose what - which is a pity.

I'm listing the names below in the order of the number of works selected - but am not including the titles of work selected. If you want to view the full listing see ING Discerning Eye 2020 - Selected Artists
 

If you'd like an image of your selected artwork included in this post   please get in touch (that's a pic not a live link under my mugshot) or message me via my Making A Mark Facebook Page

You can see what people had to enter in my Call for Entries: Virtual ING Discerning Eye 2020 post

The Virtual Exhibition will be online 24/7 from 19 November until 31 December 2020.

I haven't yet counted but I just know from sorting and typing the names that there are WAY MORE artists and artworks selected this year. Must have the fact that being online means there's no limits to how many you can have. (I wager somebody may think differently after they have all been uploaded to the exhibition site!!)

I've picked out some of the people I know below - and linked to their websites - and invited some of those whose artwork I spotted on Twitter and Facebook to send me images for this post.  If I missed your name do let me know in the usual way.

Six artworks selected

• Rae Birch Carter - I'm bemused by this one. Her theme for the six works selected is "Performing in a Pandemic" - which all appear to be images on Zoom.  No website and one mention on Instagram which goes as follows. 

Maker Rae Birch-Carter worked as a costume designer for film and period dramas before starting Agnes Hart, her Etsy shop. Now her bridal accessories take center stage.

Five artworks selected

• Martha Zmpounou

Four artworks selected

It appears that those who have four artworks selected have a very clear theme to their works including using art as social commentary

• Brian Adams 
• Victoria Atkinson - trained as a sculptor at the City and Guilds of London Art SchooHer group exhibitions have included: Royal Academy Summer Exhibition; Society of Portrait Sculptors FACE; Affordable Art Fair, Battersea; Royal Society of British Artists, Mall Galleries; The Towner, Eastbourne; Royal West of England Academy, Bristol. I've seen her work before in exhibitions - and you always notice it.

Four sculptures by Vicki Atkinson

• Disabled Artist
• Christy Burdock
• Kimberley Gundle
• Habib Hajallie
• Georgia Peskett
• Suzie Stone

Three artworks selected

• Roger Adams
• Sarah Adams
• Ruth Addinall
• Jonathan Alibone
• Louise Anscomb
• Margaret Ashman
• Roger Aslin
• David Aston
• Lilias August RI

• Sarah Bale
• Christine Bangert
• Deborah Batt
• Harry Bell
• John Bell
• Sean Bennett
• Jemima Brown
• Lorraine Brown
• Chris Bruce 
• Clive Bryant
• Trevor Burgess
• Clare Burnett
• Corinna Button
• G Calvert
• Kathryn Campbell
• Simon Chalmers
• Felix Chesher
• Wayne Clements
• Julie Cross - a multi-award winning artist living in Yorkshire. She is a figurative, expressionist painter who mostly uses female figures and faces. Her work is usually highly textured, often incorporating layers of cold wax and oil paint.

A Safe Distance? by Julie Cross

Oil and Cold Wax on Wood Panel 30cm x 30cm

• James Dearlove
• Sally Doyle
• Jill Eisele
• Nicholas Gentilli
• Imogen Hawgood
• Beverley Healy
• Michelle Heron - an urban landscape painter from Norfolk whose artwork has been praised by Kathleen Soriano

by Michele Heron

• Marguerite Horner
• Barbara Jackson 
• Hamley Jenkins
• Judith Jones
• Simon Klein
• Rickey Leaver
• Allan Martin - participated in the Inveraray Castle episode of Landscape Artist of the Year in 2018 - and got to the Final

Pleased to have three works selected for #INGDisceye@ParkerHarrisCo at @mallgalleries an annual exhibition of small works independently selected by six prominent figures: two artists, two collectors and two critics. So very complimented all sold! Exhibition on till 24 November pic.twitter.com/ce7tWe1CMp

— Allan Martin (@AllanMartinArt) November 15, 2019

• Anna Mazzotta  
• Elizabeth Meek MBE - Past President of the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Society of Miniature Painters
• Andrew McNeile Jones - graduated from Oxford University’s Ruskin School of Art, with a first in Fine Art, in the 1980’s and worked in the film industry for many years where he won a number of awards. He now lives and works in Oxfordshire and focuses on his art and exhibitions. His website is very interesting because he hs grouped his paintings into years which allow you to follow the path of his thinking behind how he approaches painting.

Neon by Andrew McNeile Jones

• Liz Middleton
• Elizabeth Nast
• Clare Palmer
• Sumi Perera
• Philippa Robbins
• Karin Schösser (I think the listing is spelt incorrectly i.e. Karin Sch√∂sser)
• Latifa A Stranack
• Tracy Ann Williams

Two artworks selected

The Continuing Saga of Sackler Embarrassment for Art Galleries and Museums

Remember the protests against the Sackler Family relating to the Opioid Crisis around about a year ago? Many were led by Nan Goldin -- and included a die-in at the V&A and a threat to NOT exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery if they accepted a £1million gift from the Sackler Family

There are news reports that Purdue Pharma is to close and be reinvented as a new "public benefit company" controlled by a trust or similar entity.

Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to three federal criminal charges for its role in creating the nation's opioid crisis and will pay more than $8 billion and close down the company.

"OxyContin maker to plead guilty to federal criminal charges, pay $8 billion, and will close the company"| CNN

Pat on the back for Nan Goldin and other protestors I think....

References on my Facebook Page to the Opioid / Sackler scandal went as follows:

More protests at sponsors of the arts with a shady past (and present?) . This time Nan Goldin has arrived to protest the Sackler Courtyard at the V&A (re. Opioid scandal and deaths in the US + associated court cases against Sackler)
Extremely odd interview of Nan Goldin on Channel 4
Channel 4 Interviewer "but where are they going to get the funds from?"
Nan Goldin "they don't need more architecture"
Channel 4 Interviewer "but where are they going to get the funds from?"
Nan Goldin "they don't need more architecture"
+ about 2-3 times more at which point I despaired of the Channel 4 ever employing people who listen to the answer.

Artist Nan Goldin leads die-in at V&A over use of Sackler name

Campaigners target £2m museum coutyard over family fortune linked to painkiller Oxycontin

I predicted earlier this week that Nan Goldin would "hit" the art sponsorship connections in London - and guess what....

"The National Portrait Gallery will be forced to turn down a gift of £1m from members of the multibillionaire Sackler family if it goes ahead with a prestigious new exhibition of the work of US artist Nan Goldin."

Nan Goldin threatens London gallery boycott over £1m gift from Sackler fund

Some of you may recall that there was a lot of removal of the Sackler name from very many buildings, art galleries

The Sackler Name

My understanding is that some Sackler names are associated with the potential for criminal charges and others are not - or less so. 

For example, the Elizabeth A. Sackler - whose name is on the Center for Feminist Art at the Brooklyn Museumhas distanced her branch of the family from her uncles and cousins and called their OxyContin wealth ‘morally abhorrent’.

It's quite difficult to find an analysis of this.....  It's also not helpful by lazy journalists referring to funders as "The Sackler Family" - without identifying which of the five trusts is responsible

• Meet the Sacklers: the family feuding over blame for the opioid crisis | The Guardian - this was the most helpful explanation I could find

The deal does not release any of the company’s executives or owners – members of the wealthy Sackler family – from criminal liability. A criminal investigation is ongoing. OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma to plead guilty to three criminal charges

• Massive lawsuit says Sackler family broke laws to profit from opioids | The Guardian  - which names the individuals who are identified in the lawsuit which

accuses Sackler family members of knowingly breaking laws in order to enrich themselves to the tune of billions of dollars, while hundreds of thousands of Americans died.

• 'We need prison time': Purdue's belated guilty plea gets skeptical reaction | The Guardian  

While the guilty plea was welcomed, there was also anger over the US justice department’s failure to prosecute executives

AND SO....

• which are the Sackler names now in the frame for potential criminal liability? (see above)
• when is the Sackler name to be removed from all endowed gifts funded by Oxycontin abuse?
• Or are the organisations going to wait until actual criminal liability is established? (as opposed to the company accepting responsibility and closing down?)

"Hold Still" moves offline and onto billboards around the UK

Back in September I wrote about the "Hold Still" digital exhibition on NPG website. Since then the digital exhibition has had over 4.8 million page views to date.

Hold Still is an ambitious community project, launched in May 2020, to create a unique collective portrait of the UK during lockdown.

Today the National Portrait Gallery announced that a Community Exhibition can now be seen on billboards around the country. 

From today, the final selection of portraits, unveiled in a digital exhibition in September, will be:

• exhibited for a period of four weeks on billboard and poster sites across the country, including at bus stops, in high streets and outside train stations. 
• Groups of works will be shown on posters in cities such as Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and London. 

• Many of the portraits will also be displayed individually in the entrant’s hometown with locations ranging from Belfast, Liverpool and Southampton to more rural areas such as Blaenau Ffestiniog (Gwynedd), Delabole (Cornwall), Marston Moretaine (Bedfordshire), Knypersle (Staffordshire Moorlands) Oban (Argyll) and Thorpe Audlin (West Yorkshire). 
• Some of the portraits will also feature on community screens in over 1,500 Co-op stores across the UK.
  
• One of the portraits ‘Melanie, March 2020’, taken by Johannah Churchill, has been recreated as a hand-painted mural in Manchester city centre.

All one hundred works will also be on display at Hold Still Exhibition at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire from 23 October until the 6 December 2020.

The exhibition has been led by the Duchess of Cambridge as Patron of the National Portrait Gallery. Today The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visited Waterloo in south London to mark the launch of the UK-wide Hold Still community exhibition and viewed the final one hundred Hold Still portraits displayed on billboards outside Waterloo station, one of 112 community exhibition sites in 80 towns, cities and areas across the UK. 

The Hold Still community exhibition sites are in the following towns, cities and areas across the UK. Some locations have more than one community exhibition site.

• A - Aberystwyth, Arundel, Alrewas (National Memorial Arboretum), Ashford (Kent), 
• B - Baldock, Balham, Belfast, Bethnal Green, Bingley, Birmingham, Bishop's Stortford, Bootle, Borehamwood, Bournemouth, Bradford, Bredbury Romiley, Brighton, Bristol,  Brockley, Burgess Hill, Burnt Oak
• C - Cambridge, Cardiff, Carshalton, Cheltenham, Cockenzie And Port Seton, Croydon, Cumnock
• D - Dulwich
• E - Eaglescliffe, East Ham, Eastbourne, Edgware, Edinburgh
• F - Fareham, Finsbury Park, Folkestone, Forest Hill
• G - Gidea Park, Glasgow South, Gosport, Gravesend
• H - Harringay, Hemel Hempstead, Hitchin, Hyde
• K - Kensington
• L - Lancing, Lewes, Litherland, Liverpool
• M - Manchester, Marylebone, 
• N - Norwood, Notting Hill
• O - Oxford
• P - Peterborough Rural, Poole, Preston, Purley, Putney
• R - Ramsgate, Reading, Roehampton, Rotherham
• S - Sale, Southampton, Southfields, St Ives, Stenhousemuir, Stoke On Trent, Sutton
• T - Teddington, Tottenham, 
• W - Walthamstow, Wanstead, Waterloo, Westminster (National Portrait Gallery), Wimbledon, Wokingham

About the Exhibition

Hold Still invited people of all ages from across the UK to submit a photographic portrait, which they had taken during lockdown, in a six-week period during May and June. A panel of judges, including the Duchess of Cambridge and National Portrait Gallery Director, Nicholas Cullinan, selected the final 100 portraits from 31,598 submissions.

Focussed on three core themes – Helpers and Heroes, Your New Normal and Acts of Kindness – the images selected present a unique record of our shared and individual experiences during this extraordinary period of history, conveying humour and grief, creativity and kindness, tragedy and hope.

The exhibition is supported by the Co-op, which launched ‘Co-operate’ in April to help connect vulnerable people to local and national support initiatives and has recently provided emergency relief funding to 4,500 community causes. 

Call for Entries: Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 7)

The Call for Entries for Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 7) has opened.  The deadline for entries is currently NOON on 30th April 2021 - although this deadline has sometimes been extended in the past.

Below I provide

• my overview of  the call for entries - plus tips
• links to my reviews of past episodes - which also contain quite a few tips

The order below is

• Key Features of the competition
• So you want to paint landscapes on television?
• Who can enter
• Eligible Landscape paintings - for submission
• Your digital entry (and what will disqualify you)
• What are the Judges looking for?
• My Reviews of Previous Heats in 2018 and 2019

To receive information on filming dates and locations and updates about the series, you can:

• join the mailing list and 
• follow the Instagram, Twitter and Facebook pages. 

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sky Arts Artist Of The Year (@artistoftheyear) on Oct 14, 2020 at 12:57pm PDT

Key features of the competition

• Filming the heats of Landscape Artist of the Year is planned to take place around the UK 
• during June & July 2021 (subject to government guidelines).at sic diprobably at three locations - which offer two alternative venues (i.e. they only do three long-haul journeys - and this summer they only moved around London!)
• The programme will (probably) be broadcast in early 2022.
• The winner is awarded 
• a £10,000 commission from a national organisation to paint a particular place. You should think of it more like a job with a reasonable fee of £10,000 than a straight prize per se. (see my note about the taxation of prizes for professional and amateur artists at the end)
• PLUS a £500 cash prize from Cass Arts for art materials
• These are the Terms and Conditions of the Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year 2020 (serie 6) competition. (There are none for this specific competition i.e. Series 7 as yet) 
• Be sure to read them thoroughly.
• The deadline for submission of your digital entry is NOON on 30th April 2021 - and entries are now being accepted online.

NOTE: Series 6 - which should have been broadcast by Sky Arts round about now - has been replaced by Portrait Artist of the Year. Effectively the two competitions have swopped places - and series 6 will be broadcast early in 2021.

So you want to paint landscapes on television?

You never ever know what you're going to be asked to paint/draw/print

My view is that the television producers aim to get a good mix and diversity of artists in terms of background, media used, ethnicity etc. 

If I'm right this makes the people painting more relatable to the viewing public.

'Portrait Artist of the Week' returns every Sunday

A reminder that Portrait Artist of the Week returns tomorrow - and every Sunday until 13th December 2020 - basically for the duration of Series 7 of Portrait Artist of the Week.

If it's anything like it was in May this year - when it became extremely popular - the show will work as follows

10 Key Facts

1. This live streaming event is accessible by EVERYBODY! 
• It doesn't matter where you live and/or whether you are in lockdown 
• because it's accessible via Facebook Live Streaming 
• which means you can watch and join in no matter which country you live in.
2. Find the Live Stream on Sunday on this link https://www.facebook.com/skytv/live
3. The painter will vary every week but is generally somebody who has done well in the Portrait Artist of the Year series
4. The Live Stream starts at 10am and finishes at 2pm (UK time) every Sunday - between 18th October – 13th December 2020. In theory 4 hours but less in reality. 
• If you want to check what time it is for you elsewhere in the world use the website below to check what time this is in another time zone. 
• https://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/converter.html
• You can however watch the live stream as a video after the event as well - it's just not interactive.
5. To join the conversation, ask the judges questions or give feedback 
• comment on the facebook live feed 
• or use #PAOTW
6. To show Sky Arts and the Judges your work use #myPAOTW
7. If you want to join in post your artwork on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter using #myPAOTW.
8. The deadline for entries is 2pm on the following Friday
9. Check the terms and conditions before posting. You may be fine with them - or you may not like them - but you won't know if you don't read them!
10. The Judges will then choose which artists work they like the best in the show in the following week.

Always wanted to paint a live celebrity sitter like our participants on Portrait Artist of the Year? This is your chance! Every Sunday join thousands of fellow artists around the world for a day of creating. Each week a different celebrity sitter will be beamed live straight into your home along with one of our amazing PAOTY artists who will be painting along.

Below is a repeat of the tips I suggested after watching the very first live stream. 

Compilation of viewer images of Bernardine Evaristo
author of Girl, Woman, Other which won the Booker Prize in 2019

Tips for Portrait Artist of the Week

Here are my TIPS

• Have all your kit set up and ready to go before 10am.  That way you can actually listen to Joan explaining how it's all going to work rather than scurrying round finding what you need! ;)
• Take a screendump - or several - of the sitter near the beginning. If you lose the view of the sitter you can then keep going from your screendump.  What I did was:
• have the Live Stream running full screen on my 27" iMac screen
• photographed the screen with my iPhone and then had the screen dump pic sitting in front of me on my iPhone. Or you could use a tablet to do the same thing. Basically two screens work better than one.
• the reason for this is that the programme makers, sitter or artist may encounter technical difficulties or the programme will divert to showing us other things while both artist and sitter enjoy a break.
• You DO NOT have to 
• paint - you can also draw in any media - and lots of people did. Take a cue from the Artist of the Year programmes - if it's a medium which can produce a 2D artwork then you can use it. 
• keep going for the whole four hours. If you finish sooner then call it done. I finished at 1pm last week after finishing earlier and then walking away to make a cup of tea before coming back and doing some final tweaks. 
• submit your artwork if you don't want to - either on the day or later in the week. It's entirely up to you what you do in terms of submitting your work

• To take a photo to post: Make sure you get your artwork in good natural light and parallel to your lens before you take a photograph
• You MUST use the hashtag and submit as stipulated in the programme and on the Facebook Page if you want your artwork to be viewed by the Judges

You might also want to have a read of the blog posts I wrote arising out of Portrait Artist of the Week earlier this year.

• Portrait Artist of the Week - starts today 10am
• Sunday morning is portrait painting time!
• What makes a good portrait and the importance of the artist-sitter relationship

I'm at an Art Society Virtual Conference!

In this post, I ask why more national art societies do not have virtual online conferences which allow participation by professional and aspiring artists from all over the world.

Reinventing the ASBA Annual Conference as a Virtual Online Event

Last year, I travelled to the USA to give a lecture at the Annual Conference of the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA)

ASBA have a four day Conference every year. Botanical artist members arrive at the city and venue from all over the USA. They also fly in from countries all around the world.  Last year in Pittsburgh, besides my fellow members from the UK, we had members from (I think) Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Japan, Netherlands and Turkey (and I think probably one or two more I've forgotten!)

This year the original planned Conference in Mobile Alabama was cancelled because of the Pandemic. 

So ASBA reinvented it as a Virtual Conference! Which I wrote about on my botanical art blog Are you going to be ONLINE in October and attending ASBA's 26th Annual Conference?

I hasten to add this Virtual Conference is wholly organised by WOMEN!  As women the world over know, women have a distinct tendency to "get on and do" when challenged by adversity. ;) (Now there's a metaphorical gauntlet thrown down! :)

So for the next four days - as part of a global audience of botanical artists - I'm going to be attending a programme of events which mainly comprise one hour Master Demonstrations - in real time - by leading botanical artists from various countries on a variety of topics.  Six demos a day!!

Here's the schedule at a glance - with timings based on Eastern Standard Time.

So my schedule is working like this:

• Last night I watched the Welcome event - which included a virtual botanical art exhibition of small works
• for the next four days I'll be attending Masterclass Demonstrations by leading botanical artists 
• six one hour sessions every day on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday (just 3)
• which are being held in the morning and afternoon (or for me - 5 hours behind - between 3-6pm and 7-10pm).  
• These are being held as webinars i.e. we can see the demonstrator and what they are doing but they can't see us.
• These will be followed by public program events in the early evening (or for me between 1pm - 2am) - which I might start but am unlikely to finish!)
• I won't be making the virtual social interaction sessions later on which will be the middle of the night for me!

You can see more details about the sessions here.  If you click the name of the session, you can see what each session does - and some include a list of materials to be used in the session.

One bonus is that some sessions will be recorded - and available to review for up to 24 hours. (I'd have preferred it if they'd made it 48 hours - because life still goes on)

To accommodate our international members, most sessions will be recorded & available to registered attendees for viewing for a limited time upon the conclusion of each block of programming.

Below is a map (six days ago) of the people who have registered to attend sessions - and where people will be when they attend the Conference as as you can see although it's dominated by Americans, there are people attending from the UK and Europe, Asia, Australasia, Africa and South America

Map of where people attending the Conference live - and will be during the Conference!

Why don't more Art Societies have Online Conferences?

I'm genuinely puzzled as to why more national art societies - in different countries:

• don't do annual conferences
• haven't taken the opportunity offered by the Pandemic to create online virtual events which 
• help to connect their members with other artists around the world
• generate cash for the wider activities of the art society

Are conferences just "an American thing"? 
Do people think they'd never get the numbers to make it worthwhile?

I have news for such societies. 

• With absolutely no hotel bills and transport costs to fund, it's much more likely that people will attend such events - and pay for the privilege. Particularly as all those who are more vulnerable will feel super safe staying at home.

Save $3,000+ No travel, airfare, meals, or hotel!

strapline marketing Realisim Live

• Moreover - as a number of botanical art teachers have found - the scope of the technology means that 
• sessions can be conducted as webinars and 
• many more can view workshop sessions 
• AND have a really good view of what the artist is doing!
• plus the American Art Editor and Publisher Eric Rhoads of Streamline Publishing (Plein Air Magazine & Fine Art Connoisseur Magazine) has been very quick off the mark and doing pretty well organising two online conferences
• Plein Air Live - in July - which had a Private Facebook Group
• Realism Live - in 21-24th October - with a few days left to register!
• it's where a lot of the sponsorship money is going - which is worth thinking about the next time an art society tries to drum up sponsorship

So how about it?  Is now absolutely the right time for more art societies to get to grips with technology and start finding partners and sponsors and organising online virtual events and conferences?